Thursday, March 08, 2007
Things Are Going South In The Southwest
Carlsbad, New Mexico.
For some, these three words conjure up visions of a big hole in the ground. For others, it’s the scene of a multitude of swarming bats. For me, it’s my home for the next (insert number here) months.
As readers of this blog no doubt realize, we spent the winter of 2005 / 2006 in this same town, same campground as a matter of fact. As summer came to a close last year, we were stuck without a good workcamping position to go to, so we opted to come back here. It was a simple matter of a phone call & we were invited to return.
We’ve broken our unwritten rule about not going to the same place twice. We figure that there is so much to do & see in this great country that we’ll be lucky to get in even half of it during the time we have left on this big blue planet. We had planned to head to Arizona this winter, however, upon doing a little homework on the Yuma area, I found out about a thing called "Valley Fever". VF is a respiratory ailment brought on by fungus spores found in the dirt there. I guess this really wasn’t much of a problem in the past, but a couple of things have changed. One is the proliferation of toy haulers, which allow people the freedom to take their quad runners with them. Unfortunately, these “quads” kick up a tremendous amount of dust, which bears the fungal spores. The fungus spores are carried by the wind & people inhale the dust. One of the affected groups is people with compromised immune systems or respiratory conditions, of which I have both. So we decided to avoid that area.
Something I have come to notice about the people in this park, they’re different, & for the longest time I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it was. When you walk through the park, hardly anyone waves. Actually, there’s hardly ever anyone outside! It occurred to me that almost half of this park is rented to “monthly’s”. These people live here. They go to work everyday, come home, watch TV & go to bed. It’s the mindset of most people that live in what I call “stick homes”. (Don’t get offended…I said “most people”). They have problems of their own & really don’t want to know you. This is one of the things that I hated about living in a stick house. You really can’t classify these people as RV’ers, because they don’t travel. Hell, looking at the rigs here, most of them haven’t been licensed in years! I think true RV’ers are a bit of a different class. That’s not to say we’re any better or worse, just different. We travel, experience life from a different perspective and generally enjoy our lives. There’s a common bond there and a general camaraderie that’s commonly found in groups like sailors or divers.
As I mentioned at the outset, I’m not sure how long we’ll be here. I thought we were going back to Rapid City this summer to make a court appearance for my Social Security claim, but when I called my attorney, I was informed that it could take anywhere from 8 to 12 months to get a court date. Try as I might, I can’t come up with a good reason to leave here, just to travel again to someplace warm next winter. A real waste of fuel. This is going to be the longest time we’ve ever spent in one place since we hit the road. I’m generally ready to hit the road after about 3 months. I’m not sure what I’ll be like after spending a year here. I would love to be in financial shape to be able to stay just one month at any given place before moving on.
At least when you stay in one place like this you
have plenty of time to devote to your hobbies. I received some new accessories for my telescope and this will give me the opportunity to get them installed. I’m looking forward to going out in the desert some night to get away from the city lights. I’m hoping it will give us a nice dark sky to view.
I also travel with a homemade dartboard stand, so I can throw outside, when conditions allow. I started fabricating this thing when we were in Rapid City & finally finished it up when we arrived here last fall. It works really well & breaks down to fit in one of those folding camp chair bags.
Living in an RV really doesn’t give you much wall space inside for a dartboard. Besides, “She That Must Be Obeyed” gets pissed if I miss the board & stick one in her dinner plate. (Hey, I didn’t tell her to sit there!) It’s nice to be able to throw at yer own house without having to go to a pub. Besides, most bars are going to electronic dartboards now. I guess you really can’t charge someone to play a game of steel darts. And there’s the whole liability thing…jeeze, drinking a little beer & throwing sharp objects, what two activities go hand in hand better?
By the time (insert month here) rolls around, I will certainly be ready to hit the road! Knowing we are going back to Rapid City is kind of a double-edged sword. I know we’re going back to a great job at a good park, but I definitely hanker to go some place I’ve yet to see. Perhaps this trip, I’ll finally get this Social Security thing resolved. We desperately want to sell the pickup truck and get a box trailer and scooters & the back pay from this claim would make this possible.
If you’re still with me at this point, a gold star for you.
I guess I should take some space to mention something about our trip from Rapid City to here. We stayed in SD until nearly the end of September. I learned an important lesson…when the birds fly, so should I. All the other workcampers left at the end of August. We thought it would be good to hang around a couple of weeks, besides I had some medical tests to wrap up. Let me tell ya something, the seasons there change faster than Britney Spears' hairstyle. In just a few days it went from sunny 70’s to rainy 50’s. So, weloaded the ark with all animals gathered all our junk collected all our valuables and headed towards warmer latitudes. On our way through Denver we stopped at a scooter dealership to look at some choices for future scoots. Naturally we found just what we were looking for at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, if we had bought them at that time, we would’ve had to sleep in the pickup truck, ‘cause the scooters would’ve had to be stored on our bed.
RULE OF THUMB: You only find what you’re looking for when you’re not ready to acquire it.
After innumerable promises of our return (made to LeAnna, not the sales people), we resumed our voyage south. Most of the trip was uneventful, that is until we reach the outskirts of Roswell. About 15 miles outside of town, I looked in the mirror & sawa silver flying disc what is commonly referred to as a “road gator”. For the uninitiated, a road gator is the tread of a tire, which has jumped mercilessly onto the pavement, sacrificing itself so that it might rip the muffler from the car of an unsuspecting traveler. After uttering the appropriate “magic phrases”, I ease the rig to the side of the road. Upon inspection, I discover that the tire is actually still holding air. It appears that “all that’s happened” is the tread has peeled off the tire…and dented the fender…and tore out part of the inner fender well…and ripped out all the wires going to the power window, and the power door lock and the speaker of the passenger door. --That’s all--. So, we decide to limp down the highway a short piece to a wide, flat spot off the shoulder. Fortunately, we have Triple A with RV coverage. Unfortunately, we’re not sure where we are. Oh we know what highway we’re on, but we don’t know what mile marker we’re near. We can see two marker posts, one about a half mile up, the other about a half mile back. Wisely, we decide to break out the binoculars to get a look-see. It’s at this moment I realize I should have spent the extra $20 for the bit more powerful set. After 20 or so minutes of “is that a 6 or an 8?” and “it’s either 187 or 263”, we decide that the only thing to do is to unhitch and drive the motorhome ahead to see what it really says. Not wanting to leave the truck unguarded on the side of the road with all our junk prized possessions, I volunteer LeAnna to stay with the truck while I take the RV to reconnoiter.
As I near the milepost, I can see it says neither 187 nor 263, so much for modern optics. It’s at this point that the thought crosses my mind about “just driving on”. But I regain my senses when I realizeshe would just hunt me down & kill me I have a lot of good junk in that truck how much I love & need her & how my life means nothing without her. So I make my famous ubee and return to the scene of the crime. Amazingly, we have cell phone service without having to stand on top of the rig & make the call to AAA. We are assured by Deborah, the Triple A agent, that help is on the way. I pass the time by making up new cuss words to call the truck. LeAnna reads. Forty-two phrases later, a flatbed truck pulls onto the side of the road behind us.
As he loads the pickup, I casually ask what it might take for him to “forget” to chain my truck down, “accidentally” losing it on the highway to be totaled. I can tell by the look on his face that we really aren’t speaking the same language. After watching the driver waste valuable minutes chaining my truck down, we are on our way to Roswell. Traveling at warp speed better than 75mph, we arrived at Wal-Mart tire shop.
I guess he really wanted to get back to Sunday football before the nachos were all gone. So, $115 & a new tire later, we’re hooked back up & on our merry way towards Carlsbad.
As it’s only about 60 miles from Roswell to Carlsbad, the rest of the trip was satisfyingly uneventful. We arrived at the park near dusk & were greeted by the owner with ”Boy, am I glad to see you”. I thought it kind of curious at the time, but shrugged it off, figuring she’d somehow “channeled” the trouble we had gone through & was happy we had made it. We signed our paperwork, found a spot & hooked up our rig. The following day I found out the cause of her elation. It seems she had a fish on the hook that was interested in buying the park. * Groan * She had not done the books or any of the pertinent paperwork since I had left six months ago!!
Her “files” left a great deal to be desired, needless to say. So, I spent the next 65 hours with my head buried in paper. Not all at once, mind you, but I trudged through my 20 hours / week deciphering, going through unopened mail, and generally trying to sort out the mountain of ephemera. Finally, I finished and recorded all the information on floppy discs for her & made reports in the relative areas for the new owner.
After everything’s said & done, the new owner has honored the workcamping agreement I had with the former owner, & even though there have been many changes to the park, some of them have actually been good. We can stay here for free as long as we wish & LeAnna has a decent job at Wal-Mart. It’s not a perfect world, but it’s as close as we can get from here…
Until Next Time…
Mark
For some, these three words conjure up visions of a big hole in the ground. For others, it’s the scene of a multitude of swarming bats. For me, it’s my home for the next (insert number here) months.
As readers of this blog no doubt realize, we spent the winter of 2005 / 2006 in this same town, same campground as a matter of fact. As summer came to a close last year, we were stuck without a good workcamping position to go to, so we opted to come back here. It was a simple matter of a phone call & we were invited to return.
We’ve broken our unwritten rule about not going to the same place twice. We figure that there is so much to do & see in this great country that we’ll be lucky to get in even half of it during the time we have left on this big blue planet. We had planned to head to Arizona this winter, however, upon doing a little homework on the Yuma area, I found out about a thing called "Valley Fever". VF is a respiratory ailment brought on by fungus spores found in the dirt there. I guess this really wasn’t much of a problem in the past, but a couple of things have changed. One is the proliferation of toy haulers, which allow people the freedom to take their quad runners with them. Unfortunately, these “quads” kick up a tremendous amount of dust, which bears the fungal spores. The fungus spores are carried by the wind & people inhale the dust. One of the affected groups is people with compromised immune systems or respiratory conditions, of which I have both. So we decided to avoid that area.
Something I have come to notice about the people in this park, they’re different, & for the longest time I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it was. When you walk through the park, hardly anyone waves. Actually, there’s hardly ever anyone outside! It occurred to me that almost half of this park is rented to “monthly’s”. These people live here. They go to work everyday, come home, watch TV & go to bed. It’s the mindset of most people that live in what I call “stick homes”. (Don’t get offended…I said “most people”). They have problems of their own & really don’t want to know you. This is one of the things that I hated about living in a stick house. You really can’t classify these people as RV’ers, because they don’t travel. Hell, looking at the rigs here, most of them haven’t been licensed in years! I think true RV’ers are a bit of a different class. That’s not to say we’re any better or worse, just different. We travel, experience life from a different perspective and generally enjoy our lives. There’s a common bond there and a general camaraderie that’s commonly found in groups like sailors or divers.
As I mentioned at the outset, I’m not sure how long we’ll be here. I thought we were going back to Rapid City this summer to make a court appearance for my Social Security claim, but when I called my attorney, I was informed that it could take anywhere from 8 to 12 months to get a court date. Try as I might, I can’t come up with a good reason to leave here, just to travel again to someplace warm next winter. A real waste of fuel. This is going to be the longest time we’ve ever spent in one place since we hit the road. I’m generally ready to hit the road after about 3 months. I’m not sure what I’ll be like after spending a year here. I would love to be in financial shape to be able to stay just one month at any given place before moving on.
At least when you stay in one place like this you
have plenty of time to devote to your hobbies. I received some new accessories for my telescope and this will give me the opportunity to get them installed. I’m looking forward to going out in the desert some night to get away from the city lights. I’m hoping it will give us a nice dark sky to view.
I also travel with a homemade dartboard stand, so I can throw outside, when conditions allow. I started fabricating this thing when we were in Rapid City & finally finished it up when we arrived here last fall. It works really well & breaks down to fit in one of those folding camp chair bags.Living in an RV really doesn’t give you much wall space inside for a dartboard. Besides, “She That Must Be Obeyed” gets pissed if I miss the board & stick one in her dinner plate. (Hey, I didn’t tell her to sit there!) It’s nice to be able to throw at yer own house without having to go to a pub. Besides, most bars are going to electronic dartboards now. I guess you really can’t charge someone to play a game of steel darts. And there’s the whole liability thing…jeeze, drinking a little beer & throwing sharp objects, what two activities go hand in hand better?
By the time (insert month here) rolls around, I will certainly be ready to hit the road! Knowing we are going back to Rapid City is kind of a double-edged sword. I know we’re going back to a great job at a good park, but I definitely hanker to go some place I’ve yet to see. Perhaps this trip, I’ll finally get this Social Security thing resolved. We desperately want to sell the pickup truck and get a box trailer and scooters & the back pay from this claim would make this possible.
If you’re still with me at this point, a gold star for you.
I guess I should take some space to mention something about our trip from Rapid City to here. We stayed in SD until nearly the end of September. I learned an important lesson…when the birds fly, so should I. All the other workcampers left at the end of August. We thought it would be good to hang around a couple of weeks, besides I had some medical tests to wrap up. Let me tell ya something, the seasons there change faster than Britney Spears' hairstyle. In just a few days it went from sunny 70’s to rainy 50’s. So, we
RULE OF THUMB: You only find what you’re looking for when you’re not ready to acquire it.
After innumerable promises of our return (made to LeAnna, not the sales people), we resumed our voyage south. Most of the trip was uneventful, that is until we reach the outskirts of Roswell. About 15 miles outside of town, I looked in the mirror & saw
As I near the milepost, I can see it says neither 187 nor 263, so much for modern optics. It’s at this point that the thought crosses my mind about “just driving on”. But I regain my senses when I realize
As he loads the pickup, I casually ask what it might take for him to “forget” to chain my truck down, “accidentally” losing it on the highway to be totaled. I can tell by the look on his face that we really aren’t speaking the same language. After watching the driver waste valuable minutes chaining my truck down, we are on our way to Roswell. Traveling at I guess he really wanted to get back to Sunday football before the nachos were all gone. So, $115 & a new tire later, we’re hooked back up & on our merry way towards Carlsbad.
As it’s only about 60 miles from Roswell to Carlsbad, the rest of the trip was satisfyingly uneventful. We arrived at the park near dusk & were greeted by the owner with ”Boy, am I glad to see you”. I thought it kind of curious at the time, but shrugged it off, figuring she’d somehow “channeled” the trouble we had gone through & was happy we had made it. We signed our paperwork, found a spot & hooked up our rig. The following day I found out the cause of her elation. It seems she had a fish on the hook that was interested in buying the park. * Groan * She had not done the books or any of the pertinent paperwork since I had left six months ago!!
Her “files” left a great deal to be desired, needless to say. So, I spent the next 65 hours with my head buried in paper. Not all at once, mind you, but I trudged through my 20 hours / week deciphering, going through unopened mail, and generally trying to sort out the mountain of ephemera. Finally, I finished and recorded all the information on floppy discs for her & made reports in the relative areas for the new owner.
After everything’s said & done, the new owner has honored the workcamping agreement I had with the former owner, & even though there have been many changes to the park, some of them have actually been good. We can stay here for free as long as we wish & LeAnna has a decent job at Wal-Mart. It’s not a perfect world, but it’s as close as we can get from here…
Until Next Time…
Mark
